October 2006

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:01 p.m. on October 3, 2006, at the home of George Otto.

Roll Call

Present were Larry Flanigan, Brad Pryor, Jim West, Jim King, Evelyn Maurer, Chris Riemer, Bobbie Rosengarten, Lois DeRitter and Mark Schaffer (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Paul Axel-Lute, Mike Del Vecchio, Andy Koenig, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Barbara Moo, George Otto, Liz Pagan, Julie Pasqual, Sandie Reilly, Pam Robinson, Pat Rolston, Bob Safranek, Jean Scully and Lori Falco (Other Board Members) and Rick Thomas, Allen Kugel and Tom Pylant (Guests). Absent was Gwen Orel.

Secretary’s Report

The minutes for September were accepted with the following amendment. The Festival committee report should read as follows: “Registration is down from a year ago. Offers have been confirmed for the Spring Festival to Roberts and Barand and Joe Crookston. Folk Project performers are Ellen Musikant, Christine DeLeon and Carla Ulbrich, with one Folk Project performer yet to be chosen.”

Treasurer's Report

Our bank balance as of 9/29 is $37,574.41. CD value as of 9/8 = $10,170.07. The Ramat account totaled $83,398.77 as of 9/29. The October/Fall Festival disbursement in the amount of $1,234.88 was wired to our bank today.

Approximately $18,500 of last month's income - practically equivalent to the entire net income for the month - represents Festival admissions. Karyn has some final registrations but Pat does not believe it will be very much additional money. Checks to be written at the Festival for performers and the camp are expected to total in the neighborhood of $22,000-$23,000. At this point we stand to lose money on the Festival, but are doing better than we were last year at this time.

Pat had hoped to have filed the premium audit for 09/05-09/06 before the end of the month; it should be completed now within the next week. Comparison of this year's figures to last year lead her to anticipate an additional premium due of about $350.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Newsletter Update & Formal Introduction

Liz Pagan introduced Tom Pylant, who will be taking over as newsletter editor starting with the January issue. In December, news items should go to him. The change will be announced in the newsletter. Liz suggested that we give him anything that we think Liz knows.

Tom said that he is looking forward to becoming the editor and is glad to have an opportunity to give something back to the Project.

Term Limits of Folk Project Officers

Mark announced that Barb is well qualified and interested in serving as our next Treasurer. Given that, he no longer sees a need for the amendment that he proposed and asked whether it would be possible to withdraw it. Currently, we are collecting member opinions on the amendment, as required by the Constitution. We decided that not enough time has elapsed since notice of the amendment was published in the newsletter for the membership to respond, so we will defer voting on the issue for another month. Mark encouraged us to reject the amendment when the matter comes up for a vote.

Potential Project Procedural Protocols for the Pension Protection Act of 2006

Andy notified us that cash donations to a non-profit organization require a receipt to be tax deductible. He suggests that we have receipts available at the venues where we handle money. Sandie said that we do have receipts available at the Minstrel.

Nominating Committee

Chris announced that Mike wants to chair the committee and that anyone who wants to volunteer for the committee should see him.

Folk Alliance

Pat said that they have asked us to renew our membership. Mike said he may have gotten the renewal notice; we can renew online. We had agreed we would renew without a vote last year.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Minstrel Booking

September was a good month for the Minstrel. We averaged 113 in attendance per show; 91.8 including Open Stage. For the last 12 months we averaged 99.6 per show; 84.7 including Open Stage.

We are $254 in the black, not counting the 9/29 show.

Minstrel Staffing

Keep volunteering.

Swingin’ Tern

We had three dances in September, and will have only one in October, because of the Festival. Attendance at all three September dances was below the average of the preceding nine months. For the year to date (excluding New Year's Eve) we still have net revenue of over $1,000. The September 16th dance was preceded by a cross-step waltz workshop, taught by Ken Crawford without any cost to us, that was attended by eight dancers.

Paul reported that Swingin’ Tern would like to ban a dancer. We moved into a Committee of the Whole to discuss the matter. When we returned, Paul moved that the Board should tell the Swingin’ Tern committee that they have the authority to ban a dancer. Andy suggested an amendment to re-affirm that Swingin’ Tern does not need the approval of the Board to ban someone. Barb moved that that we affirm that the Swingin’ Tern committee has the authority to ban a member and that the Board supports that as appropriate. This motion was seconded. Mark suggested that we include other venues in the ban. Jim West said that he felt these matters should be brought to the Board.

George said that it has already been our policy that committees have the authority to ban someone, but it is wise to inform the Board if they have decided to take that action.

Barb withdrew her motion. Paul withdrew his motion.

It was pointed out that the policy has been followed -- the committee has acted, as they had met and taken a vote on the matter prior to the Board meeting and the Board has now been informed.

Lois mentioned that if problems arise with activity participants, it might be better to alert people earlier so that they can keep an eye out for particular behaviors. Evelyn suggested that the minutes reflect that this was a committee decision and the Board concurs that an appropriate decision has been made. Mike asked that the minutes include that the Board was in general agreement with the actions of Swingin’ Tern.

Andy wants to create an e-mail discussion group to formulate a motion to establish procedures for dealing with problems at venues and make a proposal to the Board. Anyone who is interested should e-mail Andy.

Horses Sing None of It

Taped two fine shows in Sept – David Jacos-Strain and Modern Man.

Bob Fivehouse, our regular director will be away on 10/12, so Sandie will probably step into the director's chair. Upcoming shows: include 10/12/06, 6:30 Mary Flower, and 10/12/06, 8:00 David Massengill.

Special Concerts (via e-mail)

The Screaming Orphans was a big success artistically and financially. The audience had a great time, we sold out, several have asked where to find them in future, and several FP members asked about seeing them again too (Andy even mentioned Festival). As soon as Gwen gets a final report from Pat, she’d like to offer them a sell-out bonus.

Cherish the Ladies Irish Christmas is proceeding apace. Gwen has sent PR materials to Alice. George has the web updated. Some tickets have been sold despite our not doing anything yet. There are flyers at Minstrel and some tickets— Gwen needs to be notified when more tickets are needed. The Bickford is handling all ticket sales except for our outlets of Gintys and the Minstrel. She is working on food donation since we cannot prepare a meal there. Sandie has flyers that are available for postering— would really appreciate someone (Jean?) doing Morristown again. Buy tickets!

Pam said that we have received a Dodge grant for $2000 to be used for Special Concerts. Mike asked what would happen to the grant if there were no new Special Concerts chair and no concerts next year, would we have to return the grant. Pam did not know since she has not seen the grant application. The grant does cover the Cherish the Ladies concert and runs from October 2006 – May 2007.

Festival

We are experiencing relatively low attendance – 159 registered as of last week. This is a little above last Fall. Ken anticipates a loss of $1000 - $2000 for the Festival. Mark said that Ken wanted him to address the Board and get a sense of how we feel about going forward with the Fall Festival since historically we tend to lose money on it.

Storytelling

Rivika Willick will be taking Julie’s place on the Board. Ellen Musikant and Paula Davidoff want to start attending meetings. The Festival will take place on September 30, 2007.

Membership

Making progress on the flyer. Barb said they have great art for the cover and are working with Helene to make it pretty.

Newsletter

Addressed under Business items.

Publicity

Under control.

Webmaster

Festival registration is closed. Since last week, $2000 appeared, so Festival picture may not be as gloomy as we had thought.

Tickets for the next special concert are not being sold online; instead they are all going through the Bickford.

Web hits are somewhat down. The new page for the RSS feed is getting 50 hits per day. It registers a hit any time someone opens a browser that has a link to it. This gives an indication of how many people link to us.

George got a quote from Ginty’s for $22 per person for catering the annual meeting. We’ll order a sheet cake, so the total should be about $28 per person. Last year the entire bill was about $840. Liz moved that George handle the money the same as last year. The motion was seconded and approved.

Merchandising

Under control.

Internal Affairs

There is an Evening of Music for October, at Sandy Jackson’s. November is at Barb and Andy’s. December is open – it will be the holiday party.

Community Affairs

Elizabeth has received her first request for musicians for the holidays. Paul mentioned that Rich DeFiore, one of the dancers, recently passed away. The committee sent a card.

Sound

Going good and ready for Festival.

Archive Management

Bobbie spoke with Ron Becker. They are set up to get our material into the collection. He will take DVD’s for the skits, but doesn’t want computer files. Chris talked to our lawyer about putting recordings of events in the archives. The lawyer pointed out that we don’t have the copyright to that material. However, this is a specialized area so he suggested a different lawyer. Chris hasn’t heard back from the other lawyer yet. We should be safe with the DVD’s, however.

Bobbie said that we need to decide how many years of minutes and treasurer’s reports we want to keep in our active files. We need someone to do this on a regular basis. Pam said that we must keep all minutes permanently.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Barb Moo went to a fabulous concert by Dicey Reilly and Music Town. This was a benefit to help people in Sierra Leone who need surgery due to having contracted a form of tuberculosis that attacks the spine. Mike Agranoff had a letter published in Car and Driver magazine. George Otto recorded three shows for work with Tommy Thompson as host, Mary Alice Williams as co-host and voice-over by Frank Field. Jim West enjoyed a three week trip to Ireland recently. Jim King will be the voice of Orson Welles for a production of War of the Worlds at the Sarnoff Library in Princeton on 10/28. Sandie Reilly completed 112 miles in 2 days by bicycle to raise money for multiple sclerosis. She has a blog recounting her experience at http://sandiereilly.blogspot.com. Andy Koenig was pleased to learn he could order a new wall wart on the Internet when his cat chewed through his keyboard cable. Lois DeRitter recommends the Celtic festival she recently attended. Elizabeth will be going back to school, attending classes at Fairleigh to earn her professional certification in HR. Mark and Robin Schaffer attended a great dance festival in Lake George. Brad Pryor conquered his stage fright to appear at a recent Open Stage with Alice Weimer. Jean Scully is having her gall bladder removed on Oct. 19 and she’s thrilled. She recently bought a rental property in Asbury Park. Pam Robinson’s two nieces will be attending the Festival. Bobbie Rosengarten recently enjoyed a visit to Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright home in Wisconsin.

ADJOURNMENT

We adjourned at 10:08 pm. Next meeting is on November 7, at Pagan-Kleiner World Headquarters.

Respectfully submitted,

Lori Falco,

Secretary